Easter Break 2014.....

Easter Break was a nice quick trip home that got me ready to finish up the semester. We headed to Lovell Thursday afternoon after Zac Haskell got out of class. As much as I enjoy getting to go home on Thursday, I'd much rather have the Monday after Easter off so I could send the entire holiday with my family.

We spent the weekend at home. We got home Thursday night, ate some dinner, headed out to Kara's to see them, and spent the rest of the night talking to my parents.

Friday was a lazy day, my mom and dad headed to Billings to get things for Easter and Kinlee's birthday present. Dani, Emi, & I spent the day at home playing basketball, watching TV, and taking a nap. Later on after my parents got home, we headed out to Kara's house to Kinlee's birthday. I can't believe how fast my little princess is growing up. It's crazy to me that she's 2 years old already, but at the same time I can't remember what is was like in our family before her. Once again, the night ended by talking with my parents.

Dyeing Easter Eggs was on the agenda for Saturday. I decided to try getting creative like my sisters and parents do by drawing on the eggs with crayons. Usually I'm pretty boring and only make them solid colors, but I tried to branch out this year! After we finished with our masterpieces, we cooked some hamburgers on the grill since it was finally nice outside, and got my parents to watch Frozen while we chowed down. Thanks to the kids jamming out to the Frozen soundtrack the night before, my mom & dad heard all the songs before watching the movie. :) Dani & I headed out to Kara's house to say goodbye to her family since we were leaving the next day.

Sunday we woke up, saw what the Easter Bunny brought us, and hunted eggs. After we got done, it was time to pack up and head back to Laramie because I had an exam I had to study for on Tuesday. It was a quick trip home, and I was sad to come back but luckily it's only for a few weeks. Finals are in 2 weeks and we'll be heading back to Lovell in no time. I'm thankful that I got to spend the weekend with my family and am especially grateful to my parents for everything they do for us!

Finally!!.....

After what seems like forever, I finally received my Rotation Schedule. For the most part I'm pretty happy with it, and got a lot luckier then some other people in my class. While I might not have gotten my first choice on everything, I at least got one of my top choices. Some of my other classmates got assigned to places that were their seventh or eighth choices or ones they didn't even choose. Overall I got pretty lucky, and I'm happy with my schedule. I get to stay around the areas that I wanted. I'm close to home or around Laramie within driving distance.

I get some time off in the summer, get my harder rotations done towards the beginning, and get to be in Laramie right before I graduate.

I've still got so much to do this semester, not only with my classes, but also with getting ready for rotations. I still have to do CPR certification, finish my Immunization training, applying for licenses, getting drug test, liability insurance, background checks, and meeting with my adviser to help make sure I have everything ready to go. I can't wait until everything is done and I can be on my Rotations. It's going to be a nice change for going to class every day and studying for exams. I'll get a glimpse into what the rest of my life will entail.

The Next Great Baker.....

I love Pinterest! There are so many great ideas on there. Most are just wishful thinking because I don't feel like truly creative or talented enough to make it look as good as it does with the pictures. A majority of the items I pin, I haven't even attempted. I'm not brave enough :) Now, Dani on the other hand is willing to try new things. We both love to watch baking shows, and one of our favorites is Cupcake Wars. She wants to try and do the different piping techniques that can be used to frost cupcakes & cakes.

The other day as she was searching for new ideas, and she found a recipe for Snickerdoodle Cupcakes. They looked really good, the recipe looked fairly easy, and she wanted to try them out. I love Snickerdoodle cookies, so I was excited she was feeling ambitious.

 Here's the recipe. It says at the bottom of it, but this came from Deliciously Sprinkled.

I'm so glad that she made these because they were excellent. The frosting reminds me of the frosting from Cinnabon. I'd definitely recommend these to anyone. Dani's a pretty good cook and can make me these cupcakes whenever she wants. I think she could be The Next Great Baker if she's going to make delicious things like this!

A Good Day to be a Cowboy.....

Tuesday night our Cowboy basketball team played San Diego State. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go tonight because it didn't start until 9:00, and I had an early class the next day. I decided I better go because our boys are known for playing well again ranked opponents in the AA, and well they definitely didn't disappoint! They dominated and lead by about 10 points for a majority of the game. Our crowd was awesome and cheered like crazy the entire game.The second the buzzer rang, the students stormed the court, I guess we were pretty excited about beating the 5th ranked team in the nation! It's the best game I've seen our boys play all season. It was a great day to be Cowboy fan that's for sure! I'm glad we decided to go, I would have been disappointed if I had missed out on this one. Watching the different Cowboy/Cowgirl games is going to be one of the things I miss the most when I'm done with school. It's my favorite thing to do while I'm here!

On a different note, I'm starting into my exams, which means my semester is finally starting. I have an exam pretty much every week for the rest of the semester. I just had an exam yesterday in Pharm Administration, put in my preferences for rotations today, have an exam in Therapeutics on Monday, a presentation Friday, an exam in Sterile Products the next Monday, then I'll head to Regional Basketball, have my Economics midterm the Wednesday after I get back, then it's State Basketball, and the week after that is Spring Break. It seems like this semester is flying by in some ways, but going slow in others. With the anticipation of being done with classes forever makes the time seem like it will never end, hopefully that's not the case.

We didn't do anything special for Valentines Day today. All we did was sit at home, watched movies, and ordered pizza for dinner. The best part of our day was getting some beautiful flowers, thanks to our sweet parents. It definitely made our day :)

Fun-Filled Weekend.....

Instead of sitting around all weekend, Dani & I actually did some fun things! Steph came down on Thursday so she could get her hair done on Friday. After I got out of my Rotation Advising, we headed to The Library to grab some lunch. After we ate, we went to the Brown & Gold store and the Bookstore to see if there was any new shirts in that we could wear to the Cowboy game the next day. We made a quick trip to Maurices and the chocolate store before heading home to watch the Lovell vs. Rocky game. It was weird to watch & cheer for the girls without Emi being out on the floor. It definitely wasn't the same, but I'm glad that she's on her way to recovery for her knee! We spent the rest of the night being lazy & bumming around the house.

Saturday we went to the Cowboy Basketball game. The boys play Utah State and we played really well. The game was the Gold Out, it was cool to see our student section all wearing the same color for once. :) It was a pretty eventful game with some questionable calls, our obnoxious crowd, & one of our players getting ejected, it was good that we came out with a win!

Steph headed home pretty early this morning so she could be home for work tomorrow and be home to watch the Super Bowl. Our Super Bowl "Party" was pretty exciting, since it was just me & Dani. It wasn't the most exciting game & definitely didn't end the way we wanted it to. The half-time show was awesome, I absolutely love Bruno Mars, & it was the highlight of the game! We made some homemade pizza to eat while we watched the game. It took me a couple times to make the dough because the first time I got the water too hot & killed the yeast in the first batch. We were going to have the pizza done by the middle of the first half but ended up having to wait until the middle of half-time to eat. It turned out really good and was totally worth the wait!

When reading about our weekend, it doesn't seem all the exciting, but compared to what it usually consists of, it really was pretty eventful! I had a good time and was happy to have something to fill our time!

Christmas & the Rest of Break.....

Christmas morning didn't start too early this year, around 8 or 9. I'm so grateful for my parents and everything they do for us. They try to make sure we all have a great holiday and get us lots of amazing gifts. I really wanted to get my parents something special for Christmas but was really struggling with what to get them. We ordered a mounted wall art picture from Shutterfly of the Salt Lake Temple, which is where they were sealed when they got married. It turned out really nice, and I was pleased with it.

We spent the rest of the day being lazy and playing with our new presents. Later that night, we went to Kara's to see what the kids got for Christmas from Santa & their parents. It was a low key day, but was great to spend the day with family.

The next week it was time for Emi's birthday. I can't believe my baby sister is already 17. The favorite gifts we got for her were displays for all her sports awards. She amazes me with how she excels in everything she does. She's so talented. I'm proud to be her sister and can't brag enough about her. She's one of my best friends and couldn't imagine our family without her. We spent the night with Kara & her family again for some homemade pizza, cupcakes, & a night filled with games. I'm pretty boring, I rang in the New Year in my bed watching a movie in the dark (pretty sure that's a sign that I'm getting old).

The rest of break I spent hanging out at home, making some blankets on my new sewing machine, playing my guitar, and spending time with my family. Of course we had to make a trip down to the drug store for some of the famous Lovell Drug ice cream, which is definitely the best in town. We also spent lots of time out at Kara's house playing games and watching tv with the kiddos.

Christmas Break went by way too quick. It was a nice break and I enjoyed all the time I got to spend with my family. I'm so grateful for everything that they do for me. I can't believe I'm already back at school with my first week already under my belt. Only 15 weeks to go until I'm done with school work forever!

Christmas Eve.....

Christmas Break went by super quick. Because finals were the second week of December, we didn't get home until late on the 13th. I got to open my birthday presents when we got home that night, went to bed, and watched Emi's game the next day. To finish off the night we had Kara & her family up for dinner and dessert. The next week was spent getting things ready for Christmas time, shopping, and watching Emi's basketball tournament.

The day before Christmas Eve, Dani brought Kate, Jake, & Dallin up so they could wrap up the surprise present they got for their parents. Katelyn had told Dani that she was so sad that she couldn't get her mom and dad a present because they're always there. When we went up to Billings we got them a picture frame and stand that we put a picture of the kids in it. They were so excited and cute coming up, picking out the wrapping paper, making cards, doing all the wrapping, and making a plan of how we were going to sneak it out to the house without their parents seeing it. I have to say I think this was one of my favorite things about Christmas this year. I'm glad we were able to help the kids come up with a gift for their parents.

Our plan was a success, Kara & Jason had no idea and were really surprised when they brought the present out Christmas morning. The next day we got the family deliveries done and got ready for Christmas Eve night. We had a small dinner and program with Kara & the family. After dinner, we played some Christmas Twister followed by Christmas Bingo (which I'm pretty sure is the kids favorite part of the night)! The kids started off Family Home Evening by singing some Christmas songs, which made my heart melt. My mom then talked about the nativity and how it would have felt to be there. We went to the basement and sat in front of a large picture of the stable, while Emi played O Holy Night. My mom challenged us to think about what Christmas really meant and how we can try to put Christ first in our lives. To finish off the evening, we did some Secret Santa.

Before bed, we got to open our new PJs. I love getting new slippers and something new to sleep in. This year my mom and dad got each of us Bulldogs sweats and shirts. My mom let us take a few pictures before kicking us into our rooms, so they wouldn't be up until dawn (even though I don't know if that worked out so well)!

Christmas Eve is actually my favorite part of Christmas and what I look forward to the most. From dinner and the program to Secret Santa, that's what makes it feel like the Holidays to me.